Orthodontic appointments for 130 children were cancelled in Galway because the dental x-ray machine was so old it stopped working.
The patients, aged nine to sixteen, who had been waiting for months to get appointments, were told in October that their procedures would have to be rescheduled.
Saolta University Healthcare Group, which covers UHG and Merlin Park, said it has now bought a replacement machine, and the appointments would be rescheduled from December.
The group has conceded that the machine breaking down will add to the West’s already lengthy orthodontic waiting lists.
The specialist equipment based at Merlin Park had been listed by Saolta as being on the ‘End of Life Equipment Replacement Programme’, which is a priority list of equipment that needs to be replaced.
But the HSE nationally did not allocate any money to replace it in 2016.
The equipment, which allows clinicians to take radiographs, ceased working before it was replaced.
Ann Cosgrove, Chief Operating Officer of Saolta, said the group took almost €70,000 from its current revenue stream in order to replace the machine, which broke down.
The dental x-ray machine was delivered to Merlin Park last Tuesday, and, following installation and commissioning, it was due to be up and running on Friday “once our clinical licence and application training have been completed”.
In response to queries from City Councillor Terry O’Flaherty (Ind), Ms Cosgrove said the National Treatment Purchase Fund had not been used to send public patients to be treated by a private orthodontist to help clear the backlog of children and teenagers waiting for treatment.
She confirmed there were 1,634 children waiting for an orthodontic assessment; and that waiting list currently stands at nine months.
Once the assessment finds that you need orthodontics, children go onto another list, which is the treatment waiting list, which stands at 2,748, and the wait times are three years and four months.
The number of patients who are in the system in ‘active treatment’ was 3,065, she said.
